The Strauss-Clements Intelligence Studies Project at the University of Texas at Austin is pleased to congratulate the winners of the 11th annual Inman Award competition that recognizes outstanding student research and writing on topics related to intelligence and national security.
The recipient of this year’s Inman Award is Dr. Jennifer Smith-Heys (Colonel, USA), who recently earned her PhD in Public Policy from George Mason University. Her dissertation, A Roadmap to Reform: Building a Theory of Intelligence Commissions, evaluates how intelligence commissions emerge, operate, and influence intelligence reform.
The “graduate semifinalist” is Michael Martenak (Lieutenant, USN) who earned an MA in Security Studies from the Naval Postgraduate School. His thesis, Inherited Bias: The Causes of Russia’s Intelligence Failure in Ukraine, examines the failure of the Russian intelligence services to understand the difficulty Russian forces would encounter invading Ukraine in 2022.
The “undergraduate semifinalist” is Maximilian DiGiovanni, an undergraduate student majoring in history and political science at the University of New Hampshire. His paper, Project TACKLE: 12 Years of CIA and Taiwanese Joint Reconnaissance Overflights, describes a joint program between the CIA and the Republic of China’s (ROC) Air Force that facilitated ROC U-2 overflights of the People’s Republic of China during the Cold War.
The Strauss-Clements Intelligence Studies Project (ISP) at The University of Texas at Austin announces the 12th annual competition recognizing outstanding student research and writing on topics related to intelligence and national security. The winner of the Inman Award will receive a cash prize of $5,000, with two semifinalists each receiving a cash prize of $2,500. This competition is open to unpublished work by undergraduate...
Strauss Center Distinguished Scholar Joshua Busby, Intelligence Studies Project Senior Fellow Stephen Slick, and Intelligence Studies Project Program Manager Kim Nyugen recently published their poll findings in Lawfare on public attitudes towards the U.S. Intelligence Community. Polling was sponsored by the University of Texas at Austin and was conducted between 2023 and 2024. Key takeaways from the polling illustrate that a...
ISP’s Tearline student research team recently published an open-source report analyzing the impact of the May 2025 drone attack by the Sudanese Rapid Support Forces on infrastructure in the vicinity of Russia’s planned naval base in Sudan. The team assessed that Russia is unlikely to realize their plans for a naval base near Port Sudan in the next 6 to 12 months due to the...